Desecration, Scythian Oath, and
Sentinel are three bands intertwined both musically and by membership. Any
examination of one band invariably leads to discussion of the other two.
Formed in 1983 under the original moniker Cynwulf, the band changed its name to
Desecration in early 1984 and played many successful shows with the likes of
Matrix, Militia, and WatchTower. The lineup consisted of Buddy Forsythe -
vocals, David Jancha - Guitar, David Roach - Bass, and Jon Liveoak -
Drums. To avoid confusion with a band out of Phoenix with the same title,
Desecration made another name change to Scythian Oath in 1985, the same year
their acclaimed and sought-after demo Shadow Of The Torturer was
released. Listen to samples in our Audio
section. By 1986 Forsythe had departed Scythian Oath and taken over rhythm
guitar duties in Sentinel - a new project started by local guitarist Steve
Larsen. Buddy's guitar duties were to be short lived though, as he was
soon asked to relocate to Dallas and take over vocal duties in the up-and-coming
progressive thrash band Eldritch
Rite. On Forsythe's suggestion, David Jancha took over his guitar
position in Sentinel. Sentinel went on to perform many shows in the Austin
and Dallas areas and record a fantastic and hard-to-find two song demo. To
further complicate and intertwine these musicians, Steve Larson went on to form
the legendary Austin party-funk band Retarted Elf which at varying times in its
history claimed Buddy Forsythe as a backup dancer and Rick Colaluca and Doug
Keyser from WatchTower as its rhythm section!

Recently TexasMetalUnderground.com
was able to conduct a triple interview with David Jancha, Buddy Forsythe, and
Steve Larsen and get their recollections on the classic Texas metal scene they
helped put on the worldwide radar. Many thanks go out to these guys for
taking the time to reflect on the classic scene and help sort out some of the tangled
web these three bands created.

Click here
to view an awesome gallery of band photos and scans from the first issue of
Cerebral Devastation zine from 1985. Also, be sure to visit the Audio
section for some rare samples from Scythian Oath's 1985 demo Shadow Of The
Torturer.

Coming soon...samples from the
rare Sentinel demo.

Texas
Metal Underground:
What originally drew you to heavy metal? Were there any bands in
particular that you would consider influences?

David
Jancha:
I started listening to the roots of metal such as Iron Butterfly, Hendrix,
Zeppelin, Cream, Ted Nugent, Bad Co., Foghat, Thin Lizzy, and Pink Floyd at an
early age because I was hearing it all the time from my siblings since I was the
youngest of five children (I was born in 1967).In the late 70’s I discovered Rush, one of my biggest influences.Rush was one of our band’s biggest influences.In the early 80’s bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica,
Tygers of Pan Tang, Anthrax, Accept, Motorhead, Queensryche, The Ramones, Saxon,
Trust, and Twisted Sister influenced every member.Metallica and Maiden were strong motivators for us to write music.In 1983 we listened to an import of Twisted Sister’s 'Under the Blade',
then learned it. That'hooked' us as
a metal band.In 1984, I was
captivated by Yngwie Malmsteen’s 'Rising Force' album.It was better than his previous projects and gave me more inspiration.I had always enjoyed classical music also.In the 90’s I got into Faith No More, Rammstein, and Type O Negative.Those three bands mix cool vocals, keyboards, rockin’ guitars, and a
sense of humor, which a lot of the latest bands lack. I just enjoy the mix of
singers such as Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas…) and Pete
Steele (Type O Negative).I also
listened to Body Count in the 90’s. They had a cool mix of metal with a
punk twist.Body Count just shows
how diverse and multi-talented Ice T can be.I can’t leave out how much Eric Johnson has influenced me since 1986.He is one of the smoothest and best guitar players in the world and he
sounds great live.

Buddy Forsythe:
The intensity and shock of it drew me to metal, since I was a big KISS fan it
was a natural progression.Influences
were Maiden, Saxon, Judas Priest, Tygers of Pan Tang, Thin Lizzy,…

TMU:
When did you first pick up an instrument and decide you wanted to play in a
band? Do you play any other instruments besides guitar?

David Jancha:
What really got me interested in wanting to play guitar was when I heard Van
Halen’s first album and Rush’s 'Permanent Waves'. I would listen to
these albums over and over. Eddie Van Halen’s soloing techniques blew me
away. That is when I knew that I wanted to play guitar. I learned
guitar and piano by ear. I first started 'playing' guitar at the age of
14, but actually 'plucked' on my mom and grandmothers’ acoustics before that.
My grandmother sang and played in C&W /
Bluegrass
bands since the early days (~1930’s), when it was mostly 'live' radio, until
she died. I learned guitar by sitting in my room for hours, playing by ear
to Rush albums. My first band was in 8th grade in Clear Lake City
, Texas
(Outside of Houston - near NASA). We dreamed of being the next Rush but
got only as far as playing covers: 'Working Man', 'Iron Man', and 'Smoke on the
Water'. The keyboardist and I had this constant argument about who was
better, Rush or Styxx. Of course being a Rush fanatic I dogged Styxx. The
argument was definitely settled after Rush’s 'Moving Pictures' tour came to
the Summit
in Houston, in 1981. I felt victorious.

Buddy Forsythe:
I remember when I first met David in 1982. He moved in across the street
from me in Buda,
Texas. All he had was a small Ampeg practice amp, so when he wanted to crank up
he would plug his guitar into his parents 'tubed' Pioneer stereo. Without
any distortion pedals, the stereo would produce a natural distortion. He
would crank up the stereo and start jamming, it was funny.

TMU:
David, you took guitar lessons from WatchTower’s Billy White. How did
that come about? How was he as a teacher? How long did you study
under him?

David Jancha:
Yes, I took private lessons from the almighty Billy White for several months.I started as a music major in college right after high school.In college I took all the guitar and music theory courses they offered.My college guitar teacher was Russ Scanlon (The Brew, …), one of the
best Progressive Jazz guitar players, but we learned mostly classical acoustic.I felt I needed some 'one-on-one' lessons from Billy White to help me
with the rock style of soloing and theory.I
studied music in the morning at college then drove straight to lessons with
Billy, then practiced three hours a night, 5 nights a week with Desecration/Scythian
Oath!It left me little or no time
to practice my lessons.I still have
a three ring binder full of lessons from Billy that I periodically review.He was a nice guy that pushed me to practice hard, but that's not to say
that he wouldn’t get agitated at me when I failed to practice a lesson.Besides all of his critical guitar theory lessons, he made me do finger
exercises on the fretboard, which made me start using my pinky all the time
while soloing.He wrote me notes on
my lessons that said, “Do your finger exercises and DON’T FORGET TO USE YOUR
FOURTH FINGER!!!” (pinky).I do
remember my first lessons.I came in
showing off my Eddie Van Halen hammering/pull-off technique.He then said I had mastered hammering/tapping, but I needed to now go
back and learn basic 'blues scale' solos. I kind of felt 'shot down' when he
said that, but it gave me motivation and was worth starting fresh with such an
excellent guitar player/teacher such as Billy.He is truly a humble guy.

TMU:
The nucleus of Desecration/Scythian Oath started with a band called Cynwulf.
How did you guys meet and decide to start a band? What was the average age
of the band members?

David
Jancha:
We were all living and going to high school in the Buda, Texas area (just south
of Austin, Tx.) when we met in 1982.

Buddy Forsythe:
We met in the neighborhood or at school.I
would say our average age wasseventeen
when we started Cynwulf in 1983.

TMU:
What year did Cynwulf form
and what type of music did you play?

David
Jancha:
Scythian Oath’s beginning started off in 1983 with a band called Cynwulf.
We had one original called 'Hotter & Hotter' that sounded very similar to
the beginning/verse of Iron Maiden’s 'Two Minutes to
Midnight'
, but was written years earlier. We played covers such as Trust
(Anti-Social), Twisted Sister, AC/DC, Def Leppard (1st album), Dio, Tygers of
Pan Tang, Riot (Swords and Tequila), etc. Before Cynwulf, David Roach
(Bass player) and I would sit around at my house jamming anything we could.
I had a 'no-name' Marlboro Les Paul copy guitar and he had a Fender Longhorn
bass that would never tune correctly. Soon after that Buddy and I would
sit in his room writing songs on guitar. We formed Cynwulf shortly after that.

David
Jancha: What I remember of 1983
was that WatchTower
was basically a party band that played mostly covers such as Accept.
That’s what I remember of the scene, or the lack of it at the time. The
Butthole Surfers were not truly an Austin
band. They met at Trinity College in San Antonio
in 1981, and relocated to Austin
later, so I can’t really say they were in the Austin
scene at that time. There was really not much going on publicly except
for WatchTower that year.

Buddy Forsythe:
I remember bands such as Ground Zero and WatchTower.

TMU:
How long was Cynwulf together before the band
evolved into Desecration?

Buddy Forsythe:Approximately one year, then we changed our name to
Desecration. The name was changed again for its final time one year later
to Scythian Oath. The singer of Cynwulf (Sid Donalson) went on after
Cynwulf to play in Vicious
Distortion. Buddy then took over on vocals and David Jancha became the
sole guitar player.

David
Jancha: When Cynwulf disbanded we
also lost our drummer Roger Ables. Roger was a great drummer but he had
other obligations. That is when we met Desecration/Scythian Oath drummer Jon
Liveoak in high school. Jon had just moved to Buda from
Alabama
and was interested in being in our band. We were not sure what to expect
from him since Buddy said Jon had played in bands in Alabama
that played covers such as Hank Williams, Jr. At our first practice as
Desecration in ~1984, Buddy sat down at Jon’s drum set and started playing
drums with a Slayer/Metallica style. It was so great because Buddy just
said, ”play it like this!”. Jon was such a bad-ass drummer that he
picked up on the metal thing immediately. Jon was “wore out” when he
left practice that first night. I don’t think he was used to the tempo
of our music. After that first practice as Desecration, with our new
drummer, we knew that it would work. I was so amazed by Jon’s talent and
how fast he improvised our songs. Even though Roger had left the band, he
showed up at our practices and helped us with our equipment at gigs. If you
listen to 'Break the Mold', that is Roger who comes into the song with that big
scream. Jon and Roger became friends also; they traded licks, which
helped ease Jon into the band. At the time Jon entered the band I always
wondered how he could pick up our style so fast until I found out that Rush
(Neil Peart) was a big influence for him as a drummer. Learning Peart’s
work helped his precision and timing. Our music had a lot of time changes,
and he was the master. That is another reason I cite Rush as a big
influence. We were all into Rush and I think that helped us as musicians.

TMU:
You guys had a practice space in Buda, Texas
at a fishing tackle company. How did that come about? Were you friends
with the owner?

David
Jancha: Practice places were hard
to come by for a bunch of high school kids, so in the early days of Desecration
we drove to
San Marcos
to rehearse at a rehearsal/studio called 'Heaven Sound'. We made all of
our early demos there. It was getting expensive and far to drive, not to mention
setting up and tearing down the drums and equipment every time. That is
when we had to find another place, which we did at a factory. I remember in
early 1985, it snowed fairly well, so we decided to practice in Buddy’s
garage. The snow stayed around for several days, so we were stranded
practicing in his garage. All we had to warm us was an outdoor kerosene
heater that we used there. The heater was for outdoors only not
indoors! We sat in his garage re-breathing these fumes. We were all
feeling weird and laughing uncontrollably. I’m sure we were suffering
from anoxia (lack of oxygen). We just took more breaks and kept on
practicing. We were that much into practicing and playing music. We
practiced during the evenings at a fish tackle plant called 'Comal Tackle
Company' in Buda,Texas. I worked there for a time running the cork injector machines and in the
paint room. Everyone in the band did his time working for the
factory. Our bass player’s dad was the plant’s general manager.
He let us practice in a spare storage/office shed at the plant. It was
cool because it was in the middle of nowhere. Nothing was stolen during
the whole time we practiced there even with the employees coming in and out
there during the day. Actually they were all pretty cool and probably kept
an eye on our little 'Jam House' as we called it. It was in one of those
areas that you never have to lock your front door, if you know what I
mean. We did have a bad incident happen when the owner of the factory came
there one night while we were practicing. We don’t know the reason he
came there (could have been after a 'spat' with his wife for all we know), but
he either sat in his car or in his office while we were practicing. I
think we got a bad rap when he probably saw tons of friends and fans partying
outside the 'jam house' while we practiced. That or he finally found the
industrial size trash can full of our bass player’s Jack Daniel’s
bottles. Roach should have disposed of his Jack Daniel’s bottles away
from there. That was definitely one nail in Scythian Oath’s coffin.

Buddy Forsythe:
Our bass player’s Dad was the manager, we all worked there at one time or
another.

TMU:
I saw Desecration live several times in Austin
opening for bands like WatchTower and Matrix. What are some of your
memories of those early shows?

David
Jancha: Memories of large crowds
and major anxiety before we came on, but yet comfort from fellow bands.WatchTower helped us get our start.At the
time, Buddy was a good friend with Jason McMaster and I was Billy White's
student. I had major performance anxiety while Billy watched from the side
of the stage. We had known Mike Botello, the drummer from Matrix,
since he had lived near us in Buda and went to high school with us. Phillip
Patterson of Matrix was such a nice person and friend, besides being an
excellent guitar player.He really
was a cool guy.I remember Phil and
I 'freaking out' about the scene at Rascals in Fort Worth when we first played
there. Unfortunately, the last time I saw Phil was at an Eric Johnson gig at
Aqua Fest here in Austin around 1990 or so.

Buddy Forsythe:
I can remember be nervous before we went on at
those gigs. I also remember eating 39-cent hamburgers from a place near
the Ritz before the show. Anxiety and hamburgers…what a mix!

TMU:
In 1985-1986 Desecration played a few shows in the Dallas
/
Fort Worth
area at a club called Rascals. From what I remember it was out in the
middle of nowhere and had a rather interesting clientele. Any good (or
bad) memories about playing there?

Buddy Forsythe:
Yes, good and bad. We nearly got killed one night by a crazed biker who thought
we were the ones who stabbed his buddy a week earlier. It was quite different
than what we were used to. One year on New Years Eve we were minutes from going
on stage and the club was shut down for improper storage of garbage. That
was garbage! It was standing room only that night. (See flyer here.)
After that night we stayed there all week and helped them pay bills so Rascals
could reopen and we could go on with the show.

David
Jancha:The
Rascals gigs and our time up there was chaotic at times.As Buddy said, a big ass crazed biker who stumbled in from the bar next
door to Rascals almost killed us.He
was out for some type of vengeance, possibly on one of Rascals’ employees and
unfortunately at the time we were on stage rehearsing for our next gig.The management staff and Buddy ran into Rascals’ management office to
find a weapon to defend us while the rest of us were left on stage to entertain
this guy and defend ourselves.I do
remember the guy calling us (in a drunken voice) 'fuckin’ punks'.He demanded us to play 'old school' rock such as Zeppelin and ZZ Top.We were so freaked out by this giant hellion biker that we simultaneously
started jamming ZZ Top's 'La Grange'. Then we went into Zep’s 'Whole Lotta Love' at warp speed.Just visualize Anthrax playing ZZ Top and Zeppelin and you’ll get the
idea.The songs we played pleased
him but due to the speed we played them it was over fast.The guy then made his way to the office to find his victim.He found the office door and started beating on it.By this time Buddy and others inside the office had made a makeshift stun
wire by cutting an A/C power cord, fraying the ends, and plugging it into the
wall’s power source.They had it
plugged in and ready to deliver 110 volts once the crazed biker was able to
break through the door.Fortunately,
at the time the door was almost knocked in, the Arlington
police department got there.They
cuffed the guy and pulled out this massive Buck knife from inside his coat.The dude was on a blood rampage!The
next incident was at Rascals’ New Year’s Eve show of 1986 which was packed
beyond belief until the Arlington
police came in and shut the show down just minutes before it was to start, due
to some bullshit stupid health permit problem or violation.It was a total scam.There
was nothing wrong, they just wanted a reason to close the club that night.
Probably to keep all the metal heads from 'corrupting' their conservative town.There was an article written up about this infamous New Year’s gig in
Cerebral Devastation.I remember our
last gig at Rascals, the crowd was really into it and thrashing around.The stage was fairly small so a headbanger’s hand reached out, grabbed
my high 'E' string, it broke and slapped me pretty good.Dallas
also had a large 'groupie' population.We
had to scramble in different directions when we got off the stage.We definitely wanted to avoid 'the clap' or something worse!

TMU:Did the music scene in Dallas start to change after many of the heavier Austin
bands started playing there regularly?

David
Jancha:I
am not sure of the extent of change but I think we influenced some of their fan
base with progressive metal. The first time we went to the Dallas/Fort
Worth area (at Rascals ~Oct. 1985) with Matrix we were all kind of stunned.There was very little, if any progressive metal there.Warlock was basically the 'house band' at Rascals.It seemed like the audience’s first intro to Matrix and Scythian Oath
was mixed due to the lack of progressive metal that they had experienced. The
club crowd would sit around while the true metal fans were on their feet banging
their heads (still not much, if any thrashing as we experienced in other areas).
Most bands in that area (NOT including Rotting Corpse) in 1985 that we heard
seemed to be kind of a mix of Motley Crue and WASP at the time we first arrived
there.They kind of had a Motley Crue
sound with a harder edge.Let’s
put it like this, a band called 'The Zoo' played with Matrix and us the first
gig and I think their hardest song was a cover of Zeppelin’s 'Immigrant Song'.No offense to the bands, but that was the style some of them were into up
there.By the time we got back there
a few months later everyone was into harder, progressive metal.Even Warlock’s style and new songs had even reflected a change.It seemed like the glam and spandex days were disappearing in that area
after that.Some friends in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area had even told me years later that Pantera’s music had been
indirectly changed by the influx of progressive metal that was started off by
Austin
bands.Don’t get me wrong, I am
not saying that Austin
bands were their influences but instead help to influence some of their fans.I think that Pantera’s fans demanded more from them than what early
Pantera had offered.They even asked
Jason McMaster to be their singer, from what I’ve heard.Pantera was filling clubs in
North Texas
even before they were at their hardest and heaviest.One of the first true Dallas/Fort Worth metal bands we experienced was
Rotting Corpse.They were in the
audience at the first Rascals show in 1985.We got their demo then soon after did some gigs with them in Dallas/Fort
Worth and Austin.I feel that Rotting Corpse was a
big influence and credit to that area.We
loved those guys!I use to go to the
Dallas/Fort Worth area to see friends, and I’ll never forget a gig that Walt
Trachsler (Rotting Corpse) was mixing down at the Tombstone Factory.I can’t even remember the name of the band but I do remember Walt and I
cranking up the woofers at certain parts of the song.I thought we were going to blow the PA speakers.I remember the other bands getting heavier also.One night I did a guest spot with Warlock at Joe’s Garage.We played Slayer's 'Black Magic' and the crowd was into it.

Buddy Forsythe:I remember Rotting
Corpse being very heavy and probably the only thrash metal band we met there on
our first visit.

TMU:
Where else did Desecration gig besides Austin and Dallas? Did you ever
make it down to San Antonio
or Corpus Christi?

David
Jancha: We played in San Antonio
at a club called Traxx, or something like that.San Antonio
had a much heavier (but not as progressive) scene than Austin
and Dallas/Fort Worth, and the audience demanded it.I can remember them chanting for us to replay SOD’s'Freddy Krueger' over and over.I
think we played it several times.They
were screaming for us to play 'DRI' also.The
only rough moment I remember there was when it was time for us to play our
instrumental that usually went over well in the other cities.I looked over at our bass player and he was waving at me telling me not
to start it.I went ahead and played
it.It was something that I wrote
that had this clean Pink Floyd-ian first half that bridged into a harder Yngwie-like
(neo-classical) ending.Like I said,
the crowd that night was ready to thrash only and all I can say is thank God for
the second part of the song or I might have been thrown off the stage by either
the crowd or my own band mates.I
think we went right back to SOD after that instrumental to avoid a stage rush.Unfortunately we never made it to Corpus Christi.

Buddy Forsythe:
Yes, we did play San Antonio
with Death Tripper and Valkyrie.

TMU:
What are some of your memories of playing shows at
the legendary Ritz Theater in Austin?

David
Jancha: – I
remember the Ritz as being this massive place with the biggest stage.Unfortunately the stage monitors never seemed to be turned on or working
right, so it was a challenge to hear each other during a live performance.It was a challenge to keep tight on such a big stage.I can remember looking back at our drummer Jon and he would give the
clueless, “I can’t hear anything” signal due to no monitors and being far
away from any amps, especially the bass amp.When the monitors are not working there you have to rely strictly on the
acoustics of the stage, and with a stage that big the sound acoustics are
bouncing all over the place.That
was really tough since we had been rehearsing in small quarters.Somehow we pulled it off. Other than that it was great to play for
big crowds with our friends such as WatchTower, Militia, Matrix, etc. I feel that there has not been a metal club that
big and in such a perfect area (Austin's 6th Street
entertainment district) since the Ritz changed into a game room/pool hall years
ago.The Back Room (another Austin
metal club) does not compare to the Ritz due to its size and location.

Buddy Forsythe:
Anxiety, large crowds,
and the smell of sewage coming from the alley behind the Ritz. It was a
great place to play. It was big and in the perfect location.

TMU:
Desecration had a few cover songs in its live repertoire. What were some
of these? How many originals did the band have and what were some titles?

David
Jancha: Some cover
songs were: Motorhead-'Ace of Spades', Judas Priest-'Breaking the
Law', Slayer-'Black Magic', SOD-'Freddy Krueger', Metallica-'Motorbreath',
Trust-'AntiSocial', Iron Maiden-'Running Free'. A few of the original
songs I can remember were: Break the Mold, Plea of Innocence, Shadow of the
Torturer, Accidental International Death, & Dark Castle.

Buddy
Forsythe: We had about ten
or eleven originals.

TMU:Why did the band change its name from Desecration to
Scythian Oath?

Buddy
Forsythe: We heard there
was a band in Phoenix with the same name and that they had a record deal with a major record company.
We had to change it as soon as possible because we were doing several gigs and
about to record a new demo at the time.

David
Jancha: The name Scythian Oath was
thought of by our bass player. He had read about the Scythians, one of the
first groups of warriors on horseback, who had taken their oath as a warrior by
drinking blood out of a skull. I guess it’s all true, we believed what
he had told us. That is how our 'Shadow of the Torturer' demo cover got
the warrior’s arm holding the skull. I really did not like the name much
because I felt it was too long, and some people were spelling it wrong on things
like flyers. We were doing shows at the time and had to make a quick
decision. No one else could think of a good name and we were all kind of
despondent about losing our original name, so due to our time constraints we all
settled on Scythian Oath.

TMU:
Scythian Oath’s 1985 demo 'Shadow Of The Torturer' was well received on the
underground tape trading circuit. Where was the demo recorded? Do
you remember how much it cost to record? How many were produced and sold?

Buddy
Forsythe: It
was recorded at Keylight studios in
South Austin
it cost about $200 dollars. We pressed about 75-100 copies.

David
Jancha: What made Keylight studios
and the 'Shadow…' demo so unique was that a guy that had never
produced/recorded a metal band produced it.Cool thing about that was he put a fresh spin on our music.

TMU:
Did the band receive mail from fans across the globe like many of the other Texas
bands at the time? What about local press? I know Cerebral Devastation
zine out of Dallas
gave the band some exposure. Any others?

David
Jancha: We were in other zines
such as 'AxeAttack' and maybe 'Grey Matter'. Somehow these publications
such as 'Cerebral Devastation', 'Axe Attack', and even bootlegged demos made it
as far as Eastern Europe. This really helped us gain some international fans. I still have some of
the letters from
Europe
and the Northeast United States.

Buddy
Forsythe: Besides the United
States, we received fan mail from France, Greece, Denmark,
and Sweden.

TMU:There were rumblings of record label interest throughout
the mid 1980’s Texas
metal scene. Did Scythian Oath ever see any interest from record labels?

David
Jancha: We heard rumors of
Electra records wanting to possibly enter the progressive metal arena. We
received several calls, several '3-way' calls a week at times, from a woman in
the Chicago
area that claimed she had ties to Electra via Don Dokken. She wanted us
to come up there for several weeks to tour and build a fan base, but there was
no way at the time, due to other responsibilities, that we could get up there. A
minority of us wanted to go there and the rest of us did not. That was one
of the final nails in the Scythian Oath coffin. It started a lot of
tension between us, which was one of the biggest factors in the band’s split.
John Perez (Rotting Corpse / Solitude Aeturnus) has contacted me recently to let
me know and make sure it was cool that our 'Shadow of the Torturer' demo will be
on a Texas Metal compilation album that his BrainTicket record label is going to
press. They are going to press 1,000 copies. He is not sure of the date,
but says it will be soon. (Read more about this release in our John
Perez interview.)

Buddy
Forsythe: I was contacted
by Metal Blade Records, but unfortunately the band split before any 'in person'
talks could begin.

TMU:
By June of 1986, Scythian Oath had broken up and Buddy had moved on to playing
rhythm guitar for Sentinel. What was the main cause for the split?

David
Jancha: Several reasons caused the
split.We all had been close friends
years before the band formed.The
band even pushed us closer due to practicing almost every day for three hours a
night, so this may have even caused some 'burn out' and brotherly fighting.
Another reason was that Jon, our drummer was starting college at
Southwest Texas State University and was going to live on campus.As I said earlier, I was going to school during the day and practicing
with the band at night, which caused me a degree of 'burn out'.I already mentioned in the question before about the tension caused by
the 'mystery woman' from Chicago. I think the final factor for the split was when we lost our rehearsal 'jam
house' at the fishing tackle company, near our home, in Buda,
Texas.All these problems came together
at the same time.I really cannot
give you one main reason.It was a
sad situation because our fan base had grown and I feel we could have gone a lot
farther.All of us had the
capabilities to refine the music over time, to help us continue.

Buddy
Forsythe:That
sounds about right. A bunch of stressful things happened all at once.

TMU:
Did Sentinel play covers also, or were the songs all originals? Do you
remember any song titles?

Buddy
Forsythe: All
originals, such as Idle Minds and Panzer Attack.

David
Jancha: Well, actually I do
remember playing one cover: 'Honky Tonk Woman' by the Rolling Stones.I do remember it being rather funny to play live since Sentinel was such
a fast and heavy band.

TMU:
How long was Buddy a member of Sentinel before he moved to Dallas
to sing for Eldritch Rite? What made him decide to split from Austin? How long did he stay in Dallas?

Buddy
Forsythe: I was a guitar player for
Sentinel for about three months, then left to sing for Eldritch Rite. I
was with Eldritch Rite for 6 months.

David
Jancha: I replaced Buddy as guitar
player when Buddy left Sentinel to go sing for Eldritch Rite. Steve Larsen (the
founder of Sentinel and Retarted Elf) and I were then the guitar players.
Steve was a very humble and patient teacher to me when I joined Sentinel.
I can remember sitting in his bedroom for a while learning several Sentinel
songs with him. I can remember getting a little tired the first few
practices because the guitar parts were like Slayer and Exodus, fast and
unforgiving on the arms. Steve and I synergistically sped up Sentinel’s
tempo with each practice. We both were seasoned guitar players and we
seemed to push the music harder every time we got together. The drummer
was not happy about the speed increase and he let us know it several times
during the rehearsals. Steve and I would laugh it off. We loved the speed
of the music. Once in a while, Kent (Sentinel's singer) would also complain
about singing to that tempo. John, our bass player, actually loved the increase
in speed of Sentinel, but this came from a guy who did not mind if we went
'Punk'.

TMU:Sentinel played a few shows in Austin
with WatchTower and Militia. What was the reaction of the Austin
audience?

David
Jancha: Audience reaction to
Sentinel was good. We were a powerful, hard, fast and heavy band that
people could thrash to. I do remember our last gig, which happened to be
at the Ritz. We ended up playing 'Honky Tonk Woman' at least twice in a
row due to the crowd getting into it and to help delay while I got another
guitar (Steve’s back-up guitar) since I happened to break a couple of strings
in a row at that gig. I can remember Kent, our singer, telling the crowd,
“He broke another one”. Man, that broken string situation was
stressful for me.

TMU:
Sentinel existed before the band Retarted Elf was formed, but some of these
shows were sponsored by Retarted Elf Productions using the same logo the band
later used. What’s the story behind that? Was Steve Larsen
involved in these productions and how did that evolve into the band Retarted
Elf?

Steve
Larsen:About the elf on the flyers
and stuff...Retarted Elf existed 2-3 years as a logo / t-shirt, before it was a
band. I had made a bunch of Retarted Elf t-shirts and was trying to make some
cash...so I thought putting on a show and putting on the Elf logo might sell
some shirts.

TMU:Where else did Sentinel play and with what other bands?

Buddy
Forsythe: We played at Machinist Hall in Irving,
Texas with Mace and Rotting Corpse. (See flyer here.)

David
Jancha: We
played the Ritz and another place in Austin, the name of which I can't remember. (It was called The Heart Of Rock &
Roll - see flyer here.)

TMU:
Sentinel’s demo is one of the harder Texas demos to get a hold of today. What was the reaction to this recording?
What were the songs on this demo?

Steve
Larsen: We
recorded it at Johnny Medina's studio in 8 hours. We never pressed it, so the
only distribution was done with tapes that we had dubbed ourselves. That is why
it is hard to find.

Buddy
Forsythe: Steve
and I can only remember the name of one song on the demo called 'Panzer
Attack'. The only person I know that had an available copy of the demo was
Kent Steele (Sentinel singer), but he gave it to John Perez for the compilation
album that Sentinel and Scythian Oath will be coming out on someday.

David
Jancha: I have a copy stashed
somewhere in one of the many boxes in storage.The only two songs I remember on the Sentinel demo were 'Death Be Proud'
and 'Panzer Attack'.There may have
been a third song but I can’t remember the name of it if there was.

TMU:
How long was Sentinel together before calling it quits? Why did the band
split up?

Steve
Larsen: We
were together for what I seem to remember for 2 years or so. Ended when the
drummer Speedy Martinez went to join the Marines.

David
Jancha: I still think the we had a
'tempo disgruntled' drummer that was so frustrated with the band’s speed
evolution that he joined the Marines.Once
he enlisted, he probably constructed mannequins of Steve and I, which he impaled
with his bayonet on a daily basis.I
felt we were at our strongest point when we broke up.

TMU:
Sentinel singer Kent Steele later formed Baron Steele with David Roach playing
bass. Were you involved in any other musical projects after the demise of
Sentinel? What about the other members?

David
Jancha: Buddy and I
were in a band together after Scythian Oath (see next question).I was in another band years ago that practiced at Austin Rehearsal
Complex (ARC) and did some multi-track recording.We had an excellent line-up of musicians, but none from Scythian Oath or
Sentinel.We played originals that
had a Faith No More style but unfortunately 'Grunge' was at its peak at that
time.

TMU:
Are you still in touch with former members of
Scythian Oath and Sentinel? What are they up to now? Are you still
involved in music in any way?

David
Jancha: Buddy
and I were in a rock band together in the late 80’s called Valhalla.
When the bass player and I left that band Steve Larsen replaced me on guitar and
David Roach replaced the bass player. You can see how we recycle each
other…the matrix of bands we were in together, or at different times were
many. Jon Liveoak (Scythian Oath drummer) and I have jammed together
periodically over the years. We had a group that would get together and play
covers. We would jam entire Ramones and Green Day albums until the cop across
the street would bang on my door. I guess hearing my wife (she would sing vocals
for us some of the time) sing the The Ramones' 'Beat On The Brats (With A
Baseball Bat)' reminded him too much of his job. It’s kind of hard to
lightly jam on the drums and guitar while playing that music. Jon finally
invested in a set of electronic drums and now can jam with headphones so he
doesn’t freak out the neighbors. Jon is a computer programmer, Buddy
works at the Texas State Senate, I am a Registered Respiratory Therapist, and I
think Roach is smoking 'Reds' while fishing and living on the river in Bastrop,
Texas. At least, that is what I hear.

Buddy
Forsythe: I play drums in
a Disco band with Steve Larsen now. I also do some drumming gigs with
C&W bands every so often.

TMU:The mid 1980’s – early 1990’s Texas
metal scene is revered worldwide to this day. I get email daily from
people all over the world who are absolutely fanatical about this music.
In your opinion, what made the Texas
scene so different and unique?

David
Jancha: I feel that
some of the reasons for the scene being different and unique were due to factors
caused from population growth in the Austin
area. Austin
had a big growth period in the early 1980’s, some of it due to the infusion
of all the high tech companies such as Lockheed, Motorola, AMD, and other
companies. With this came people from Houston,
California, Florida, and all over the place. Some of these people came with a diverse and/or
heavier musical influence. It seems like Austin’s indigenous fan base has and still favors 'Rock-a-Billy' style music.
The influx of all the non-Austinites just helped to build the metal scene in the
early/mid 1980’s. Heavier music was progressing internationally at the time
and with this progressive metal began in Austin
with bands such as WatchTower. I am not saying that was the direct cause of Austin’s unique metal scene at the time but it is a theory. We had been
playing as band before we saw our first WatchTower
show, but after seeing them it motivated us even more. WatchTower
was the cement that held the scene together. They helped us get our start
by letting us open for them and we couldn’t thank them enough.

Buddy
Forsythe: It is hard to
say why the scene here was unique except for the fact that most Austin
bands had members that were 'transplanted' from different areas. People
always think that people such as Willy Nelson, Jason McMaster, and Stevie Ray
Vaughn are/were from Austin, but they are not. They were transplants like a lot of us. Same with the
fans in the Austin area at the time. The 'transplant theory' could be one of the reasons Austin’s metal scene was unique in the 1980’s.

TMU:
And finally, what are your thoughts on the metal scene (or lack thereof) of
today?

David
Jancha: I consider
it to be lacking in the Austin area. The good days of Austin
progressive metal ended a decade and a half ago. If there is one thing
you can say about the 1980’s Austin
scene was that the vocals were better than what I hear in the area now.
Grunge probably helped in the demise of the progressive metal scene in the early
1990’s. It’s highly doubtful but maybe progressive metal will make a
come back. If you turn on MTV or VH1 nowadays, a lot of the new bands
suck. They rarely use dynamics or play guitar solos in their songs.
There are still great bands in the world such as Type O Negative, Rob Zombie,
Rammstein, Tenacious D, Judas Priest, and several others, but there aren't many
in the Austin
area. Too bad Faith No More couldn’t stick together though, it would
have been another great metal band to add to the list, but again I am biased
towards Mike Patton's vocals! Like I said in one of the first questions,
these bands know how to combine cool vocals, keys, killer guitars, and still
have a sense of humor. Death metal definitely lacks humor and vocals.
Even Pete Steele knew when to get out of the death metal 'grind and grumble'
vocals of Carnivore. Pete is just one of the great rock singers! You
don’t know what you’re missing, if you don’t listen to Type O Negative and
Rammstein. They keep the world rockin’…

Buddy
Forsythe:The Austin
scene really sucks now! You're much better off listening to the bands David
just listed if you’re into metal.

TMU:
Thanks for your time!I really
appreciate your help in letting the world know the history of the legendary Texas
metal scene.

David
Jancha: No problem,
thanks for featuring us on your site! We are honored.